Past and Future Girl
by Chaotic Harlequin
Summary: Frozen in some pod thing and now five hundred and fifty years in the future. Things can't possibly get any worse. Jori story. M for foul language, violence and everything else.
1. Chapter 1

Bright, sunny smog filled Los Angeles. It was a boring typical day in this crowded pollution filled city. I stared out of the window from the office of some company called NextGen Industries. I glanced back at my father who was shuffling through some papers. He glanced up at me and said "Almost done, I promise." I rolled my eyes. "You said that three hours ago." He gave a half-hearted shrug. "Well this time I mean it." I rolled my eyes again, though it wasn't out of anger or anything like that. Dad had almost died in a car accident, and he had that life revaluation thing that people sometimes have when they kick the bucket. Thankfully he didn't find Jesus and start preaching, he instead found out that he had been a shit father. Past couple weeks he had been attempting to pay attention to me and what I wanted. Instead of belittling or dismissing my dreams of being a writer and a director, he had actually started to support my dreams. After Beck had convinced me to mend bridges with my father, I had decided that the first place to start would be with his job. He's a lawyer and he's currently representing this company…whatever the hell it is. I tapped my foot before turning to face him. "What are you doing?" I asked. What? I'm bored and attempting to build this friggin father-daughter bridge thing. "Just putting the last of these papers in order so they can be filed. Janitor and his lawyer are settling out of court so I'm done with this case in a couple weeks."

"And then it's on to your next one." I muttered, wondering why I was suddenly pissed at the fact that all he does is work. I turned back around when he cleared his throat. "How….how do you feel about a trip to Hawaii? Mary and Alex don't have to come." Oh my god. He actually wanted to spend time with me? Well shit. "That." I paused. "I would like that. Step-bitch and step-shit can come with; we can actually pretend to be a real family." Dad rolled his eyes. "Too much to ask you to like your stepmother or your stepbrother?"

"Yes." I answered immediately. Dad rolled his eyes again. What? Mary is a gold digging bitch and Alex is a perverted little shit. Caught him trying to peep through the keyhole of my room when I was getting dressed. Had smacking him around that day. "We'll spend a couple weeks there, you'll have to miss the last couple days of school, but I don't think that you'll mind."

"Can I bring Beck?" I asked. Dad paused to think and then nodded. "An extra ticket won't cost anything." Oh the wonders of being rich. Dad reached into the desk and tossed a pair of keys at me. "Keys to the basement, you can see the accident there. Don't let security catch you, not supposed to let anyone in there."

"Haven't been caught once." I snapped. "Your long list of detentions says otherwise."

"Not my fault!"

"Uhuh."

I walked out the room as dad turned back to his papers. I glanced over my shoulder and said "Thanks, Dad." I was out the door and down the hall before he could say anything. I bypassed a couple security guards who didn't even look up from their phones. Good job guys! Providing such great security. I walked past the guards without a care in the world. That's how you do it. Not all sneaky and shit. That just makes it look like you're up to something. But if you walk in there like you belong there…everyone just leaves you alone because they think you're supposed to be. They didn't stop me, though one did look up and glance at my chest. Saw that coming. I flashed my license at them to fast for them see properly and walked past them. The one that had been checking me out opened his mouth to say something, but the other guards shut him up. Lazy security. Makes life so much easier. I breezily walked down the hall with a smirk on my face until I found the door that I was looking for. Inside was the room was a bunch of pod like machines along each wall. It was easy to spot were the blast had happened. Blackened scorch marks and twisted pieces of metal jutted out from the wreckage. Another pod was intact and across the hall from it. The carnage was pretty damn cool. Man, to see what it had looked like right as it went up in flames. I took a few pictures with my phone, already imagining the plot. Hrmm…frozen for centuries, wakes up in the future? No that's stupid. Who the hell would want to hear about that? Or…Could do that and maybe wake and go all murdery and shit? Like that Jason X movie. Except you know, good. I started writing the script in my mind as I wandered around the basement. Part of me wondered why they would have this here instead of some factory, but then I decided that I didn't care. I was so lost in my own world that I barely heard footsteps coming my way. I swore and dove into the one pod and pulled the door shut.

I watched as the guard who actually tried to do his job and stop me was poking around with a flashlight. A man in a cheap suit followed behind him using his cell phone as a flash light. Huh. Guess some people actually take their fucking jobs seriously. I shrugged. All I had to do was wait until they were done and then I would leave. Or at least, that was my brilliant plan. I groaned after their search stretched into the half hour mark. I sat down inside the damn thing and rested my head against the back. Oh my god. Don't they have something better to do? Goddamn. Leave so I can get out and go pee. That's when the shaking started. Fuck! Earthquake! I jumped up and slammed on the release hatch. Nothing happened. I hit it again and again and nothing happened. I hit the emergency latch and still nothing happened! Goddamn piece of shit! Debris or something started smashing onto the pod. I started to panic and pound on the door. I kept punching the door as the shaking got worse. Pieces of the building kept slamming into the pod. After several minutes of punching and kicking the door, I have up because my limbs started to seriously hurt. I fell back against the wall trying hard not to cry. I felt the ground tearing itself apart and everything still landing on top of the pod. What little light there was cut off as the quake kept going on and on. Was this the big one? I huddled in the corner, hoping that it would end soon and that I wouldn't be buried alive. I could only sit there praying, hoping something!

Something clunked inside the pod and I screamed. I gave a shaky laugh after I realized that it was my phone. I grabbed it and called my dad. He answered on the second ring. "Where are you?!" he yelled. "Basement cyro pod thing! I can't get out!" I yelled back. My heart was thundering in my ears, breath coming in short gasps. The metal started to buckle and groan under the weight of all of the rubble on it. Oh god…was it going to break? I stared at the top of it, waiting for…something. I don't know. Death? Hope? When nothing happened I started laughing again and wipe away the tears. "Jade, you still there?"

"Yea..Yea I'm still here. I think the quake is done." I said, giving some sort of choke sob thing. "Okay, I'll get someone to get out of there before the aftershocks start. Don't" Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a loud cracking sound and then nothing. I stared at my phone. "Dad. You there?" I heard nothing. "Dad? Dad come on answer me you old bastard! DAD!" A loud crack interrupted my yelling. I looked up (even though I couldn't see through the damn roof) and heard more cracks. I screamed as more rubble came crashing down and the top of the pod started to buckle. I screamed again when a loud hissing erupted and white smoke started filling the air. I immediately started to freeze and my teeth chattered as I rubbed my arms and tried to stay warm. I felt…tired. So tired. Everything is slowing down. I curled up into a ball and shoved myself into a corner away from the smoke. My eyes started to close and as I fell into a dreamless sleep, I knew for a fact that either Beck or my Dad would find me. They would find…

 _So here it is. A revamped time traveling thing. I don't like my old work. At all. So redoing and hoping that it is better in every way. I'm glad that many of you had liked it, but I didn't. So here is hopefully the start of a better improvement._

 _-C.H._


	2. Chapter 2

You know what's fun? Tearing through old city junctions on a packrat. Going over two hundred kilometers per hour, everything just flying by. You know what isn't fun? Going that fast and your brakes not working. "Turn left!" Andre said. I twisted the handle and with the grace of a fat walrus, the packrat turned down to the left. "We've been looking around for days, we going to find anything this time?" Andre asked. "Maybe. What's the rush? Hot date?" I asked half-jokingly. You never know with Andre. "Nooo." He said, stretching the word out. I laughed and banked the 'rat to avoid some rubble. "We're grounded until they decide to unground us. And for that to happen, we need money. Has to be something down here we can scavenge. "Who comes down here anyways?" I asked.

"Homeless people, drug addicts, gangs, serial killers" Andre said. "Yea yea okay shut up." I did growl under my breath though. The underground or Nethers as people called them wasn't safe. All sorts of people lived down here in the ruins of the old LA. Yet here we driving like jokers through it trying to find anything. I grumbled. Stupid port authority being all…stupid. Grounding us for being behind on payments. How are we supposed to pay when they won't let us go anywhere to make some money?! At least they didn't take Nostromo away, Don't know what I would do then. What any of us would do… "I think I got something!" Andre yelled. I immediately slammed on the brakes and then waited a second or two for them to actually start working. We jerked to a stop and I told Andre to remind me to have Cat fix the brakes. Again. Just glad we didn't need to do an emergency stop. Don't think we would have been able to do that. "Whatcha got?" I asked. "This path leads to the Undercity." I stared at Andre as if he had sprouted a second head. We weren't so hard up on money that we needed to risk the Undercity! I opened my mouth and Andre cut me off. "No no we're not going there! Just before the start of the Undercity is some of the ruins from the twenty first century, might have something there."

I thought for a second and then turned the 'rat down the path he had pointed out. If we started

getting to the drop off to the Undercity, I was turning around. I don't care if we found the lost treasures of Serendipity. You think the Nethers are bad with all of the things that Andre listed? Undercity is worse. Coppers don't even go down there. Only the army does and they only do it in force. Mutants, the worst kind of people; you name it, it's probably down there. Every once in a while, some group of geniuses try to go down there and fine something. The lucky ones come back shattered, babbling wrecks. The rest? No one ever sees them again. I rubbed my sweaty palms against my cargo jeans and hoped I didn't look nervous. We drove for some time before we reached the spot. We stopped just short before the fake road path started to slope down. "Here it is." Andre said. "You got a ping from that?" I asked, pointing at a partially collapsed building. "Yuep. Scanner says there's a little bit of energy in there. Some piece of something in there is still running." I sighed. Better than nothing. I turned the 'rat off and took the security key with me. We entered the building pistols drawn. This close to the Undercity, who knows what we would find in here? "What's this place?" I asked. Andre looked at the pad for a minute before he said "It was part of Browning-Orvis corporation, they used it to test new tech like their cryo units. This entire area was destroyed in the 2018 earthquake. They tried to save what they could, but when they couldn't save it, they paved it over." I looked back at him and he shrugged and said "Cheaper than rebuilding." I rolled my eyes. "If you say so." I muttered. We kept walking until something crunched beneath my boots. I looked down and nearly shrieked at the human bones I had stepped on. I swung my flashlight to see half of a skeleton buried underneath the rubble. The bones I had stepped on came from it. I shuddered and kept walking. After an hour or so, we finally found what was pinging the 'pad. A generator connected to a couple lamps. We stared at it for a minute before we both groaned and turned around. "Let's go home. Not gonna find anything down here." I nodded and we walked out, carefully following the markers we had left on the walls. We got outside without any trouble and I tossed Andre the key while walking around the side of the building. Maybe I'll find something around there, maybe not. Looking at the building, I couldn't help but feel kind of sad. Here was something that might have held some kind of meaning to people, or at least been a part of their lives. Now? Now it was nothing but a wreck buried underneath kilometers of cemstone and other crap. I bent down to pick up a piece of rock and tossed it into the dark. It clanged off of something and I stared. That something was metal. Something worth salvaging? "Andre bring the 'rat around to me. Might have found something." I couldn't help the bit of excitement in my voice. A minute later, Andre was there and turned on the floodlight. We waved around until we found what my rock had hit. It was some kind of pod thing. Cat might be able to tell more about it, but who cares? It's salvage! More coins in our pockets! Okay maybe a couple coins. Better than nothing though. Andre activated the arm. The arm sparked as it stretched out and hovered over the pod thing. The mag grips snapped out and latched onto the pod. It took a minute, but Andre managed to get the pod out from the rubble and onto the 'rat. Though he didn't do it quietly. The noise echoed up and down the abandoned tunnel and we both froze like deer in high beams. Please please please let no one have heard that. You know, for a second I actually thought that we were golden. And then the screeching started. I jumped onto the 'rat and punched it. Andre nearly fell off with a startled yell. Which might have been funny if it weren't for the horrible things that might happen to us. I swerved and put us back on the path out of here.

It took a couple hours, but we were back on the surface and in the wonderful city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, the shining megacity. Home of Hollywood and countless other things. Such a wonderful city. Constantly vibrant and full of life. The sun was beginning to set as we turned to go home. I smiled at the sight of the Nostromo. Sure she was old, but the bulky ship was our home in every way. The 'rat actually made a smooth stop into the cargo bay. Glad that they choose to work now instead of later. "Cat!" I called out, and the red headed mechanic detached from the roof and landed next to the 'rat. (Scaring about a year's growth from me) "Brakes are shot. Again. Gotta fix em." Cat frowned. "You have any money for new parts? I can do much with what we got left." I groaned. It always came back to money. Which we never have enough of. "We picked up this old pod thing, take it apart and let's see if there is anything to sell." Cat beamed and tried to climb up the back of the 'rat and look over the pod. She started rambling off facts and I tuned her out. Cat's an engineering genius, but man she can run her mouth. Usually it doesn't make any sense but sometimes it does. Like now for instance. She was rattling off some facts about the pod when she said something interesting. "What was that?" I asked.

Cat huffed and said "It looks like it was on a few centuries ago. Give it a few more years and it would have melted all by itself."

"Anyone or anything in there?" I asked a little nervously. What? Have you seen the flicks people are putting out these days? Who knows what you might find. Cat laughed. "They didn't even start human trials for this for like…fifty years after this thing was made. I mean just look at it! It's got no safety measures or anything. It's crap." I smiled and nodded. Just gonna take your word for it. Cat had one of the lifters take the pod off of the 'rat and place it on the floor. Cat climbed over it for a solid minute before she finds the release lever and the door screeches as it opens up. I uncovered my ears and looked inside as the fog wafted out. Cat shrieked and jumped back and I rushed forward and drew my pistol and stood in front of her. Andre came thundering down the stairs from wherever he was. Cat didn't say anything, she just pointed over my shoulder into the pod. Inside the pod, curled up in a corner was this girl. "I thought you said that no one would be in there!" I snapped. "I said they're shouldn't be!" Cat snapped back. "Maybe we should help her?" Andre said diplomatically.

Nobody moved.

"Think she's dead?" Andre asked. Her fingers twitched and the girl seemed to slowly unfold herself as she came to life. Past her mane of black hair, a single eye opened and glared at us. "Careful." Cat said. "She probably thinks it's only been a few minutes." I nodded and slowly walked forward. Hopefully she speaks English… "Hey hey. My name is Tori. What's yours?" The girl didn't say anything, she just uncurled herself and slowly climbed out of the pod. She stumbled and grabbed a table and knocked over one of the toolboxes on her way to the floor. Andre rushed forward to help her with a big disarming smile on his face. I guess it wasn't disarming enough because the girl took one look at him and her arm blurred. Andre dropped with a shout when a wrench clanged off of his face. He rolled on the ground, holding his face and moaning. Cat launched from behind me and started hitting the girl. We've all in our fair share of tavern brawls and it showed. This ganky girl couldn't get a hit in as Cat wailed on her. I holstered my pistol and smirked. I don't like watching people getting hurt, but she deserved it. I was smirking right up until Girl grabbed a plasma wrench and smacked Cat in the ankle. While Cat jumped back in pain, the girl grabbed the leg that was in the air and yanked her forward.

Cat squealed and dropped like a stone when she slammed into the pod wall, crotch first. She rolled on the ground holding herself and as I tried to process how things had changed so quickly, Girl slammed into my chest shoulder first. Breath left my body in an explosive rush and I crashed into the ground and banged my head on the metal grating. Stars exploded from my eyes as the girl rolled off of me and stumbled out of the open shuttle bay. I got up and followed her, holding my aching head. What a gank! Who wakes up and just starts attacking people?! Ganky girl hit the bottom and slammed into a stop. She stared at LA skyline, the skyscrapers lit up and the lights and ads as skycars flew in their lanes. She turned and looked around the port, as an extremely fat barge ignited its thrusters and started to take off.

"What…what the fuck? How? This doesn't..I can't…" She stared and I wondered what she was surprised about. Every city on this planet looks like this. It's been that way for centuries. "What year is it?" She demanded.

"2568." I answered. She stared at me and I stared back. Her body shook and I braced myself for another round when she suddenly went as limp as a wet sponge and fainted. I stared at her stupidly with my fists raised. "You gonna keep standing there like a rock or help her?" I blinked and looked at Andre. I laughed and dropped my arms. "You two good?" Andre shrugged as Cat came out with the gurney. I helped her put the girl on the gurney and wheel her into the medbay. I had the synthetic intelligence go over all three of us before checking in on podgirl. The SI declared us all healthy if bruised, and I sent them away to finish our daily chores. I didn't have to wait long for the girl to wake up. This time I wasn't taking any chances. As soon as her eyes opened, she was staring down the barrel of my laspistol. She shook her head and when her eyes were opened fully, she pressed herself back as far as she could on the bed and raised her hands. "Your name?" I asked. "Jade. Jade West." She said, keeping her eyes locked on the gun. "I'm Tori Vega. Why did you attack my friends?" She tore her eyes from my gun and looked at me. "Are you stup…" She paused and looked back at the gun still pointing at her face and then back to me. "I wake up and see a bunch of random assed people standing there. I don't know who you are or what you want. So I made sure you couldn't do anything to me."

"Why were you in that pod anyways?" I asked. Jade huffed and rolled her eyes. "I was hiding from security when the earthquake started. Guess the stupid thing started because of the quake. I was on the phone with my..Dad! Where is my dad?" She shot up and stared at me with pleading eyes. "Earthquake? You talking about the great 2018 quake?" I asked softly.

"Yea sure?" She asked. I hesitated. "Jade." I took a deep breath and continued. "That quake was five hundred fifty years ago. You're in the twenty-sixth century." Jade stared at me as if I had gone insane. "That's…That's impossible. That doesn't just happen! You're lying!" She started screaming and I dropped my gun and grabbed her and held her head to my chest as she cried. The SI came to life at the sounds of Jade's crying and asked if there was anything that it could do. I told it to go away and continued to hold Jade as she cried and cried. I caught parts of what she was crying, about her father and something or someone called Beck. A few minutes later she pulled herself off of me and stood in the mirror. She stood there for a minute and then turned around. "You'll be staying here. Come on, I'll show you around Nostromo. We have spare rooms. If you want to leave after everything, that's fine too." I said.

Jade gave a dead smile. "Where would I go? I'm ..I'm" She trailed off and looked away. I smiled. "You'll always have a home here. Right guys?" I asked Andre and Cat, who were both hiding by the door. They stepped out and both agreed. A ghost of a smile flicked across Jade's face before it disappeared behind what I assumed is her normal angry look. Cat grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the med bay. Andre and I broke out laughing at the shocked Jade wore as Cat chattered away as she took her around Nostromo. "Thought Cat would try to get back at her." "Cat's just excited to have a new friend. I think we all could use a new friend." Andre smiled. "Yea we could. Oh, the dock administration wants to talk to you. He said be at his office tomorrow at 1000."

I groaned. Just what I needed. Probably gonna complain about us not paying them sooner. How much easier it would if we had enough money to just bribe them like everyone else does. I rolled my eyes. "Fine fine. I'll take Jade with. She might like that. See how things have changed." Andre laughed. "She might. I think I'll talk to her myself." I laughed. "Go ahead and talk to her, and get another wrench thrown at you." Andre frowned and grumbled. I laughed and walked out of the medbay. I think this was going to be the start of some good times.

 _I wasn't going to name their ship Nostromo, but then I remembered that I'm not being paid for this so fuck it why not? Nostromo it is. Watching Alien and Aliens back to back might have something to do with it. Hope you all enjoyed. Also, Andre can't dodge a wrench, so I'm pretty sure he can't dodge a ball._

 _P.S. the bones Tori stepped on? Jade's father._

 _-C.H._


	3. Chapter 3

Thunder rumbled and I glared at the night sky before yanking the hood up. I was wearing what a skinny black trench coat that I buttoned up as the first drops of rain started to fall. I shouldered my way through the crowd as I wondered with no real destination in mind. I stopped to look at the crowds of people as they moved on, each lost in their own little worlds. I chuckled without any kind of humor. I guess a couple things haven't changed no matter century. Though the crowds and lights were so much larger even at night. I had ditched the little girl Vega after we had bribed the dock administrator. I was expecting to see some short, greasy balding asshat but instead we met a tall balding rail thin guy. Who started leering like some creepy perv when Vega and I walked into his office. Vega ignored the leers to argue about the pay. She argued well, but in the end, we paid up what he demanded. I didn't understand it first, but Vega explained to me that we weren't paying rent or anything like that, we were paying to avoid having the ship impounded or torn apart by the police.

"But we haven't done anything." I had said, protesting the blatantly illegal acts that they could do. Vega had shrugged. "So? He knows the right people in the police unions and the guilds. We don't pay up we suffer. Just how it is." We when we got back to the ship in the afternoon I grabbed my jacket and walked off to…some place. I don't know. It's been hours since I left and….oh my god. Where the hell am I? I stopped so suddenly a man ran into my back and cursed at me and I glared at him until he wisely backed down and muttered an apology. Retracing my steps doesn't really work when you have no idea where you've been walking for a few hours. Goddamn it. As if right on que, it started to rain. Hard. I could scream right now. I really could. I pulled my jacket tighter and moved forward. Okay. Okay. I can figure this out. I got lost in old LA all the damn time and still found my way home. Just because it's five hundred years later doesn't mean that I can't do it now. I noticed a computer monitor sticking out of a wall. Jackpot! Had to be some sort of phone booth thing. Okay. Okay. I walked up to it and hit a button. It took a second but it came online with an annoyingly perky voice announcing that it is ready to help. I put in an id card thing that Vega had given to me before I had left the ship. "Connect to Tori Vega." I said. The screen blinked out and then came back with a picture of Vega. "Is this the person you wish to connect? Victoria Vega, captain of the Nostromo?"

"Yes."

The screen turned into a picture of some flag and a minute later Vega's face popped up on the screen. "Tori Vega speaking."

"Vega. It's me."

Vega blinked and then gave an angry smile. (Don't ask me how she did it.) "Wondered when you were gonna call! Shouldn't have let you go without a comm. You're calling from a booth near Small-Laos. I'll get you a taxi. You'll be home soon!" She said and I nodded. "Thanks." I said quietly. Home. Home was a large house in Beverly Hills. Home was where Beck and I watched horror movies together, making fun of the dumb blond that would get herself killed. Home was where we planned on becoming famous in Hollywood. His acting, my writing and directing maybe even singing. Home. Home disappeared in some great earthquake five hundred years ago. I didn't have a home. Not anymore. About twenty minutes later a red taxi pulled up in front of me and the driver rolled down the window and said, "Jade West?" I nodded and got in the taxi. The driver took off as soon as I had shut the door, nearly slamming me into the seat. "Goddamn, in a rush much?" I snapped. "Sorry, you're my last fare for the night and I want to go home."

Well I couldn't fault him for that so I up and watched the countless blazing lights of this new LA blur by. You know what hasn't changed in centuries? The freaking traffic. Doesn't matter that most of it was literally in the damn sky, what was on the ground was still enough to get stuck to a damn standstill. Even in the middle of the damn night! I commented on this and the driver laughed. "Not from around here huh? This isn't bad at all. You should see it during the day. Even the sky lanes have to slow down!" I shuddered. It took about a half an hour for us to reach the port and then almost another twenty minutes to actually reach Nostromo. At the bottom of the ramp stood a slightly impatiently worried Vega tapping her foot. I got out of the car while Vega paid the driver. When he took off Vega turned to glare at me. I stepped back feeling a little defensive for some reason. "Seriously Jade? Yea shit sucks for you but you can't just take off like that! I was looking for you for hours!" Her voice started to raise in volume and I stepped back again when her hand shot out and stopped right in front of me. "The hell do you want?" I demanded. "My credit chit. Guess I should be lucky you know how to pick my pocket and work a comm-booth." I huffed and handed her the chit and she grabbed it and walked past me. "Your bunk is ready, it's right across from my room. We bought you a burner phone. Best we could do right now. I'm going to bed. Good night Jade." She stormed off and I stared at her rapidIly retreating back. I glanced at the phone and sighed. This is a burner phone? Looked like the latest whatever number iphone. A smart phone is a burner phone? The hell. I scoffed and pocketed the damn thing and made my way to my room.

I climbed down the ladder and ditched my boots and collapsed on the bed. How the hell did this happen? Five hundred years in a cyropod thing? I can't believe that this happened. It's like a shitty story. Ugh. I rolled over and curled up, trying not to cry. Tears started to leak through my closed eyes. "Dad. Beck." I couldn't hold back any more and broke down sobbing. It was all fucking bullshit! How this happen?! Why? I curled up as small as I could make myself and cried until I fell asleep. It wasn't a restful sleep either because I was plagued by nightmares. Nightmares of the earthquake of being trapped in that damn canister of Beck and Dad blaming for living while they died. It was that last one that got to me. I woke up dry heaving and covered in sweat. I sobbed and rolled over but couldn't go back to sleep. I growled pathetically and tossed the blankets off and got out of bed. I walked into the little corner that made up the bathroom and stood there like an idiot for a minute before I figured out the lever to get the shower head to pop out of the wall. I hit the button a bit underneath the shower head and then screeched as a jet of ice cold water hit me right in the face and chest. Teeth chattering, I hit and twisted the nob until the water became blistering hot. Much better. Seriously though, five hundred years later and they couldn't make showers easier to use? I stayed in the shower for some time, maybe hoping that the water would wash away the nightmares. It didn't of course, but I like to think that it helped. Maybe a little bit. Reluctantly I shut off the water and grabbed the towel and sat on the edge of the bed. I sniffled and then rubbed my eyes. Come on, when has crying like a little bitch helped anyone? I'm here and stuck in the twenty-sixth century and might as well make the most of it. I rubbed my eyes again and got dressed.

It was kind of cool that you got into the rooms with a ladder and a solid metal door to bar the way. Wish I had that at my dad's house. Definitely would have kept that peeping little shit out. I climbed out of my room and made my way to the galley to get breakfast. The galley wasn't as well stocked as I thought it would be. Guess Vega wasn't lying about being broke. Looking through everything, I had to guess that they had maybe a few days' worth of food. There wasn't even a real variety, just a few things. "Yea we don't have much food." A voice said behind me. My feet left the ground and I stifled a shriek as I spun around to glare at the redhead. Said redhead at least had the decency to look scared. The little twit. "Didn't you sell my damn cryopod thing?" I growled, still a little angry at her sneaking up on me. She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet for a few seconds before she answered. "We did, and got a few sovereigns for it from the museum. But then all of it went to bribes. So, we're left with nothing. Again!" How anyone could sound so cheerful about being broke is beyond me. I was starting to think that this girl had more than a couple screws loose. "Oh, I know we could always borrow some money from someone I don't think engine grease is supposed to take this long to cook." She said staring over my shoulder. I blinked and stared at her. Engine grease? Cooking? She definitely had some loose screws in that pretty red head of hers. "Okay kiddo, why don't you show me what you're talking about." I said gently. "Kay Kay!" She said loudly. She grabbed my hand and yanked me deeper into the ship until we reached the engine. She babbled away about the engine for several minutes and I got maybe one word in ten as she poked around the damn thing. All of a sudden she slammed to stop and glared at me. "Who are you calling kiddo?! Neither of us are in our twenties!" You know what they spend a lot of time teaching in theatre? Improvisation. So when random shit like this happens, you can at least attempt to roll with it. "You're right, neither of us are in our twenties." Redhead nodded with a victorious look on her face. "You're what? Nineteen? I am about five hundred seventy. So, to me, you're a kid. Kiddo."

Redhead's face went from victoriously smug to annoyed in a heartbeat. "You spent like all of that time in cyrostasis! It doesn't count!" "

"Says who?"

"Says me!" She said with an air of finality.

I tapped my finger against my chin for a few seconds while I pretended to think. "Nope. Still counts. I'm older then you by a wide margin. You're a kid. Kid." Redhead puffed out her cheeks and sucked in some air as she prepared to launch a counter argument. "I see you met Cat." A voice said to the right of me. I looked over from the wall I was leaning against and spotted Vega. Vega smiled at the both of us and I gave her a level stare in return. Vega's smile did disappear when she focused on me but I didn't care. "Cat?" I asked. She nodded. "Our genius engineer. Though she is a bit of a warp-mouth."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" An offended shout nearly deafened me. Vega blinked and said "It means….who wants breakfast?" Cat perked up and skipped out of the engine room and I slowly followed. "She's…different." I allowed. Vega nodded. "Don't let her mind fool ya though. Best damn engineer out there. Pretty sure she's wasted here."

"Why do you say that?"

"Not much for an engineer to do on a ship that's permanently grounded. Port Authority has us locked. Every time we pay them off, they raise the price."

Vega explained a bit more about how they lack the money to bribe the right people to do anything about it. A shitty situation for them. They bribe the dock authority who is supposed to get Port Authority to back off. Instead, the Dock Authority is bribed and then promptly demands more money and leaves them locked. To go over his head requires more money than they could possibly get and keep themselves alive.

Breakfast was a simple affair, only changed when the kid with dreads came in and started flirting with me. I shut him down almost immediately and neither Cat or Vega let him forget it. It was around ten forty-five when Vega announced that I needed to learn about the Nostromo. She had hardly stopped talking when Cat grabbed both Andre's and I hands and yanking us out of our chairs.

Cat babbled away about the ship while Andre tried to get her attention. "CAT! I live here! I've known you since high school!" Cat did slam to a stop, stare at Andre and smile and then take off again dragging us both. Okay so normally I would have torn this girl a new one because she was touching me and dragging me around but I was just too overwhelmed by everything.

I'll try to explain. The ship Nostromo is an Anteiku class cargo ship. Built like a jet, it's famous for being durable and having all kinds of places you can hide things, so it was favored amongst smugglers. A dated model that was still popular because it was fast, easy to repair and expertly designed for holding cargo. Its main weakness was its lack of armor and number of weapons. The ship could punch pretty damn hard, but it couldn't take as many hits, relying almost entirely on its speed to avoid danger. After the forced tour of the ship, the hyperactive ball of energy took off to do…something. I didn't catch her last words as they came out in a rush. Something about fuel and fire. I guess I should be concerned about those words together in a sentence, but hey it should be quick if the ship explodes.

"Well that was Cat. How are you?" Andre asked. "I'm fine." I answered. Andre snorted. "Sure you are. I mean, everyone gets stuck in some cryo thingy for five hundred plus years and are totally okay with it. It's a normal thing. Happens all the time."

"Okay okay." I grumbled. He seemed nice enough. I sighed. "I'm not okay. My family is dead. Beck is dead. Dad's dead. The few people I talked to are dead. Everything I know is now outdated and wrong and this just fucking sucks."

Andre nodded as we kept walking towards the bridge. "I'll say. I met this cute girl, tried to help her out and she hits me in the head with a wrench!"

"Don't walk up to me like that." What? I'm not apologizing. Andre rolled his eyes. "I can't even imagine what you're going through right now, but you have a home here with us. Well…as long as we can keep her."

"Broke, right?"

"No nothing is broken, we just don't have any money."

I rolled my eyes. "What happens when you run out of money?"

"Well Tori owns the ship so we don't have to worry about any company taking her away. We do have to worry about the Dock ass hat demanding another bribe and the paying the fee to LAX and kicking us out. We're so poor we can't leave or do anything really. Man, if we really don't pay the right people, they might get some of the police to impound Nostromo and then we'll be on the streets." Andre shuddered at the thought.

"Vega still mad at me?" I asked as an idea or several of them started to form.

Andre blinked at the change of subject but he answered "Yea, just a bit."

"Then she'll have to get over it." I turned and walked off the bridge. "I have an idea."

"What's your idea?" Andre asked. I ignored him as I started hunting across the ship for Vega.

"Jade? What's your idea?"

"Jade?"

"Damn it Jade what's your idea?!"

 _Hello there._

 _I'm back. Been a long goddamn time hasn't it? Went through a rough patch. Gave up writing. Gave up on a lot of things. Doing a little better now. Enough to start writing again._

 _Hope you all enjoyed._

 _-C.H._


	4. Chapter 4

"This is a terrible idea." I muttered under my breath. I could feel Jade rolling her eyes through the ear piece. "It's not like we have any better options. Unless you want to stay here for the rest of your life. Which according to Mech would be for about another hundred forty years. According to the health ministry and their latest statistics in the 2565 census."

I blinked. "When did you learn that?"

"Mech says I need to know absolutely everything. The motor mouth."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Cat's high-pitched voice screeched into my ear. I winced and turned down the volume. "It means are you in position to pick us up?"

I chuckled as Jade had quickly and smoothly changed the topic on Cat. The plan was very simple. Andre and Cat remained behind on the shuttle waiting for Jade and I to finish raiding the office of the Port Authority. Well, Jade was raiding his office. I was poking around the rest of the building in the hopes that something might be hidden around here. Not even Miss Budding Criminal knew what to look for and we were all just drifting it. Not the best plan but as EVERYONE kept pointing out, it was the only one we had. We had given each other code names, Cat was Mech (Short for mechanic) Jade was Grim, I was Sky Captain or just Sky and Andre was Dolt. Pretty sure the last one is an insult but Jade refused to answer if it was.

"See anything anyone?" I asked. A chorus of no's came back to me. I sighed and kept poking around a an office. So far, nothing. I at first doubted that they would have anything here, but I changed my mind after the "security" turned out to be a skinny kid that nearly lost his head when Jade and I flirted with him for a minute or two. Add in Andre and Cat messing with the cameras and other security bits and we pretty much owned the place. Not bad for only a couple weeks of planning. Maybe I should leave a note telling them about their problems.

"Weird." Jade whispered. "Ja-Grim. What's weird?"

"A bunch of people in the lobby wearing some weird shit." I rolled my eyes. "The twenty-sixth century is different than yours. Clothes too." I said kindly. Andre and Cat snickered over the radio.

"No fucking shit. One look at your wardrobe told me that. I meant these people. They aren't wearing much and what they are wearing is all bright and tie-dye. It actually kinda hurts to look at them." My blood chilled and I swore silently. "Jade. Get out of there now. Be quiet. Don't get their attention."

"Wha-"

"Jade, please. Shut the fuck up and listen! Get out of there now. We can try again later. Andre, get ready for a fast pick up. Cat, be ready on the guns."

"We only have enough bullets for ten seconds of firing." Cat said, thick with worry. "It'll have to do." "Shuttle's ready." Andre reported.

"Jade, come in. Where are you?"

Silence answered me. "Jade!" I hissed. "Sky shut up!" Jade hissed back and I could hear the fear in her voice. I drew my pistol. "Cat. Find her." I ordered. "One tick." She answered, panicking but doing her job. "She's on the fourth floor, farthest office on the left. I thanked Cat and started moving. I made a mental note to thank Andre for convincing me go for the more expensive ear-radios with the trackers in them. "Jade, I'm on my way, stay hidden and safe. "Tori, be careful." Andre said. I could hear the fear in his quivering voice. Though who wouldn't be scared with these people? "Vega hurry the fuck up. They're setting up some kind of boxes and giggling about it."

"Bombs probably." Cat said a little too calmly. Though I suppose she can be calm because she isn't in the building that might explode. Stealthy time over. "Andre use the scrambler and call emergency services. Tell them Sense-Freaks are here."

"Got it."

I sprinted up the stairs and nearly ran over a sense-freak. Before he could say anything, I cracked him across the temple with the butt of my pistol. He didn't make a sound as he crumpled to the ground.

"The police are on their way. I got to your dad, he said that they're coming in force."

"Oh, thank god! Thanks Dolt." I said breathlessly, slipping back into the code names now that I wasn't panicking as much. Police on the way and no one like Sense-Freaks so hopefully didn't have to worry about anyone on the force being bought by them. They would handle this. I stopped in front a bunch of offices and immediately dove into the first open. And totally landed on Jade. Woops. Jade's breath left her in an explosive rush as I muttered a sorry to her. I bit my lip to not squeal as her boot slammed into my hip in retaliation. Jade grabbed me and dragged me underneath this incredibly oversized desk. It was just big enough for us both to fit, so long as we didn't stretch or really moved much. You know how things can get strange when your life is in danger? Well at that moment, I noticed that the desk was a shade of dark brown. I ran my fingers over the desk and gaped at it. "Oh my god." I muttered.

"What? What is it?" Jade hissed.

"This is real wood! Who spends money on this stuff?"

Jade's eyes seemed to pop out of her skull as she glared at me. "Let me cope!" I hissed at her. I clapped my hand over my mouth as I heard footsteps enter the room. A powerful, fruity cloying scent filled the room and both of our eyes started to water. I screwed my eyes shut and held my breath. A light flighty laugh filled the room.

"I thought you said that you saw something." A musically soft voice said. A woman answered that voice. "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. Maybe I just wanted you all to myself right now. On that desk."

Another light chuckle. "Focus Q. Those bombs are going to go off soon. That bastard is going to learn why you don't fuck us over. His house on fire yet?"

"Yes yes. Though for a Dock Admin he had a pretty big house."

"The price of bribery. We helped get him that place and then he turned on us." A tsking sound echoed throughout the room. "Bombs are set!" A voice shouted. A loud giggling shriek erupted and I risked a glance. The long silver haired man had picked the girl up and onto his shoulders and started to walk away. She started to protest and the man spanked her and she cut off her fake-complaints with a moan.

I breathed a sigh of relief as their voices faded. That silver haired guy…He seemed familiar. Not like personal familiar, like the person you saw again after not seeing them for several years, the familiar of seeing them from holo-screens and can't remember where.

"Can we go?" Jade asked. I waited a few minutes more and then nodded. "Dolt, pick up at the farthest landing pad. Go. Now."

"On it. Police are a few minutes away." Andre replied. I nodded even though he couldn't see me and grabbed Jade's hand and took off at a run. No time for subtly or being safe. Bombs and Sense-Freaks? Never a good combination. "When do you think the bombs will go off?" Jade asked, panting right next to me. "I don't know. Maybe in thirty seconds, maybe at the end of the month."

"Wait, thirty seconds? They'll still be here!"

I glanced at her. "You really think that they care? Hell, they'll probably do it because they could and want to feel what it's like to be in an explosion."

Jade gaped at me and started to run a little faster, eventually outpacing me. We thundered up the stairs two at a time until we reached the roof and the landing pad. Cat barely had the door open when we launched ourselves into the shuttle. Andre immediately took off just as the police started to arrive. A minute later the entire building exploded. It wasn't the only explosion, all along LAX building after building was either going up in flames are just exploding into pieces.

A chorus of yells echoed throughout the shuttle as we stared in horror at the burning building. Then a though occurred to me. I grabbed a wave-fone and punched the number for my father. He answered on the third beep. "Dad! Are you okay?!" I yelled into the phone.

"Yes, I'm fine. Wasn't near the building when it went up. Damn Sense-Freaks." His deep voice reassured me. I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed against the wall. "Tori, how did you know that the Port Authority building went up?"

I blinked and then coughed. "I was…..out for a walk!" I lied. What? I am a terrible liar. I left the lying to my older sister Trina. "Uhuh. Well you're in luck because this fire is going to go for a while so there won't be any evidence of your walk."

"Thanks Dad." I said, trying to keep the smile off my face. "I have to go and deal with this. Stay safe kiddo."

"I will dad. Love you. Give my love to everyone!"

I hung up and leaned my head back against the shuttle wall and breathed a sigh of relief. "Hey Andre, what's this blinking green light?" Jade asked. I opened my eyes and looked towards the cockpit. "It's the sensor connected to the Nostromo. It only blinks green…" Andre trailed off and looked back at me. I didn't even try to hide the smile that was about to split my skull in half.

"When we land, Andre and I to the bridge. Cat, get to work on those engines. Jade, go to the cargo bay and make sure everything is tied down." I rapped out. Everyone nodded, all on the same scan. We had barely docked when everyone exploded out of the shuttle, sprinting to their assigned areas.

"Who would have thought that bomb would mess up the land lock?" Andre said with a laugh as he landed in the copilot's chair. "I didn't but let's not let this go to waste!" I replied, giddy to finally escape. I ran through the pre-flight sequence and sat ready with my hands on the controls.

"Engines ready!" Cat sang out over the com.

"Cargo-bay thing ready." Jade said a moment later. I grinned and started the engines. The thrusters roared as they pushed us into the air. "Looks like we're not the only ones taking advantage of this." Andre said. He pointed and I followed his finger to look at the dozen or so other ships taking off as well. "Keep an eye on them. Be stupid to have an accident now." I ordered.

Once we reached a pretty good distance from the ground, I switched from the bottom thrusters to the rear ones and we took off! Racing through the sky, the city of LA rapidly shrinking behind us. As we broke out of the atmosphere, I heard someone come up behind. I turned around to look at Jade, who was staring in awe. "Welcome to space. Where do you think we should go?" I asked gently.

Jade stammered and didn't say anything.

"I have an idea." Andre said with a cheeky grin.

"What's your idea?"

"We go…wherever we want." Cat had joined us at and said, "I second that motion!" Jade shrugged. "I guess I third it?"

I laughed. "Wherever we want it is!"

Racing ahead, we put Earth behind us as we set out amongst the stars.

 _Sense-Freaks are Slaaneshi cultists. Though without any influence of any Chaos gods. Can't tell if that makes them worse or not. And yes, they are just as bad as the ones in Warhammer 40k. Was looking for a villain and thought…why the fuck not?_

 _Hope you all enjoyed._

 _-C.H._


	5. Chapter 5

Have you been in space? Maybe you looked up into the stars a few times at night (or tried to if you lived in the middle of LA) but only looked. I have to tell you it's just…amazing. The vast emptiness, the blinking stars everything about it! Hundreds of ships cluttered the area between the Moon and Earth. I gawked at a ship that looked like four aircraft carriers and a couple cargo ships put together slowly waddled its way past everyone.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the massive ship. "A carrier star-fort" Andre answered. "They're can be used by anyone and that one looks like a corporate model."

"Okay..what's it do?"

"They work like mobile bases for space craft. Can go anywhere and maintain geosynchronous orbit over a planet. Slow though. Looks like one of the smaller models. Definitely corporate then."

I couldn't help but stare at the fat thing as it slowly made its way past us, several massive engines on its back-glowing red as they pushed it along. Other ships flew alongside it, completely ignoring the behemoth. That was one of the smaller models? The hell did the bigger ones look life? Moon sized with guns on them?

I could watch this forever! I never was much into space stuff, but this is just amazing! Like fireflies, ships darted this way and that, some flying to the surface, others hovering and some moving…just away. It was a hell of a sight. So far away that I couldn't be sure what I saw, but it looked like a blue spark. It was there, and then it was gone. What was that? Maybe I was just seeing things. I mean it is the twenty-sixth century and everything.

"Okay! So, we're in space." Andre said cheerfully. "What now?"

"Now we find a job." Vega said with finality.

"Sounds good. Where?" I asked.

"TITAN STATION!" Cat screeched over speakers. I flinched but as ever managed to keep it cool and act like I totally didn't just flinch. Andre jumped and facepalmed while Vega nearly left her chair. She somehow twirled around in midair to glare at the speaker box thing.

Rubbing his ears, Andre growled "Not the worst idea. Everything happens there."

"And for us that don't know what it is?" I asked, slightly irritated.

Vega chuckled. "Titan station is the largest and oldest space colony in human history. It's a huge port and if there's one thing that we can find, it's a job. A few million people there, we can be in and out before anyone notices." Vega tapped her lip as she thought.

"What about Ganymede? Or Mars?" Cat asked, this time at a much more reasonable volume. Vega shook her head even though Cat wasn't here to see it. "Ganymede is ordered. They actually have a police and government that isn't crippled by corruption. Titan it is!"

I sighed. Some future. According the data-pad things that Cat had given me, Mars and the moon Ganymede were the first planet colonies that the United Earth Alliance (UEA) had set up. For some reason they hadn't collapsed into the corruption and other problems the other colonies and Earth would have. The texts were deliberately vague about why or how this happened, but however it happened, they are constantly referred to as the "Jewels in the Earth Crown." Or variations of that.

If Vega wanted to go to Titan instead, then those places must be the exact opposite. "Wait hang on. Titan station is next to that big-assed moon, Titan, right?"

Vega and Andre nodded at me slowly and I glared at them. "How are we supposed to get there before we turn a hundred?" Andre looked confused and then laughed. "Oh, that's right. Your time didn't have space travel. Musta taken years to get anywhere."

"We didn't go anywhere." I corrected. Andre and Vega both shuddered. "That must have been boring." Andre said sympathetically. I shrugged. I never thought about any of this stuff. I only knew this much because my dad liked Star Wars and Star Trek. I occasionally listened with to what he and his geek friends were talking about. I still remember my dad and step-brother geeking out about that Tusk? Rusk? Musk? Whoever talking about putting people on Mars. I guess that guy's dream became a reality. Lucky bastard.

"Well you don't have to worry about that." Vega said and beamed at me. I returned her smile with a level stare and she didn't even falter. Plucky girl. "STC this is Nostromo, are we cleared to jump?" Vega asked to the air.

"Nostromo this is STC, you are clear. Have a good trip. Out." A slightly stressed voice answered. "Poor guy. Traffic seems like it's heavier than usual these days." Vega said sadly. She shrugged and then said "Cat, get that drive ready. We're jumping in ninety seconds."

Andre clapped his hands excitedly and begin messing with the controls. "Cat?" Vega asked expectedly.

"Good to go Cap!"

"Jumping? Who's jumping? Jumping where?" I asked. Both of them looked back at me and Vega went "Oh shoot! Forgot about you! Here, sit here and strap in." I sat down on the chair behind Vega and faced the dead wall mounted system thing while I strapped myself in.

"Nostromo isn't singing the way I like." Cat reported. "It's fine, we're strapped in for a reason and it's only a single jump. We'll get them fixed at Titan." Vega said. She took a deep breath and said "Jumping in five. Four. Three. Two. One."

I didn't even try to play it cool. Blue-white streams waved and zigzagged over the ship for a second before everything seemed to suddenly disappear and we were in a blue white tunnel!

"What is- I don't" I stammered and couldn't get a single thought out. Vega giggled. "Welcome to faster-then-light travel! Discovered at the dawn of the twenty-third century and it's how we're going to reach Titan in just a few hours." Vega giggled again. "What?" I snapped.

"You're cute when you're all flustered and stuff." I glared at her, or tried to as my eyes kept shifting back to view. "It looks bright as hell. Why aren't we going blind?"

Andre spoke up, still concentrating on the instrument panels in front of him. "The all of the windows on ships polarize automatically whenever something bright appears. Safety feature."

Makes sense. I couldn't believe this. Isn't this kind of stuff supposed to be impossible! Every second that we traveled was going faster than any person in the twenty-first century could dream of doing! I was so mesmerized about the fact that I was millions of miles from Earth and asking a shit ton of questions that I didn't realize that we had reached our destination until Vega announced "Jumping back in five. Four. Three. Two. One."

Reality jumped back at us and I looked around. Vega moved one of the screens to me and tapped it. The screen flickered and then it showed a large orange ball.

"Is that?"

Vega nodded. "Titan. And right next to it is Titan Station itself. We'll be there in an hour." Vega turned back around and started talking to Cat about the engines. A short time later I was looking at what I guess was a space station. It looked like this ever-growing black island right next to Titan. It looked like someone had started planning a design out, then lost interest and started and stopping a dozen new projects before losing interest each time. Even so, it looked like it still ran. Like there was a method to its madness.

"Titan Control this is Nostromo, requesting permission to dock." Vega said smoothly and professionally.

"Nostromo, we read you. Send the dock fee while we chart your path."

"Done. Docking fee paid."

"Received, Nostromo you are cleared to dock in bay 49C. Welcome to Titan."

"Thanks Control, Nostromo out." Vega sighed and leaned back in the chair. "You got this Andre?"

"Oh yea, your basic parking job. No tears or sweat."

Vega laughed and stood up. "Come on Jade. You're going to want to see this." Vega walked off the bridge and I stopped for a quick second and said, "Can you like…brake at the last possible second to scare the crap out of them?"

Andre gasped at me. "Jade that is terrible! Do you have any idea how much trouble that could cause?" Andre grinned and I grinned back. "Just this once, only cus it's funny."

I laughed and walked off the bridge to join Vega. About a half an hour later, there was a rumble and we docked. Guess Andre was telling the truth. Will wonders ever cease? Vega hung up her little phone thing where she had been talking with her dad, and hit a button to lower the ramp. The ramp had barely touched the ground when this angry short pudgy balding toad thundered up the ramp with two guards at his back. Vega was taken aback for a second before she put on a winning smile and walked up to him.

"Are you out of your mind?!" and I shit you not, he literally croaked! He didn't just look like a toad, he sounded like one! I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing. "What are you talking about?" Vega asked, somehow not at all laughing at Toadman.

"Cutting your thrusters at the last second like that! Gave us all heart attacks thinking you were about to crash here!" Vega turned and glanced at me and I looked back blandly at her. What? I hadn't done anything. I wasn't flying the ship. Vega rolled her eyes and turned back to Toadman. "I'll talk to my crew." She promised.

Toadman fumed but held out his grunny little hands. Vega looked at it and then him. "Your cargo manifest!" He croaked-snapped. Vega blinked and looked around the completely empty cargo-hold, save for the pack-rat.

"Umm, three people?" Vega offered. Toadman got irritated as the two guards behind snickered. "You just came from Earth, obviously you're carrying something!"

"Oxygen?" I supplied. The guards snickered again as Toady glared at them. Toady grumbled something about hiding something and I rolled my eyes. Toady pushed passed Vega who shot him a glare that should have killed him on the spot. I was actually impressed. Didn't think she had that kind of rage in her.

"Careful Vega, toady here just might find something." I singsonged. Toady glared at me as I leaned against the pack rat. I glanced up to see Cat and Andre watching in annoyance as this pudgy little shit nosed about their home. "Getting warmer." I called. Toady glared at me before moving in the opposite direction.

"What, you didn't hear me?" I asked loudly. "Oh my god. Now you're just as frigid as corpse's tit! Go in other direction you little toad!" Vega nearly doubled over in laughter and the guards didn't even attempt to maintain any dignity as they doubled over laughing.

"Oh, now you're getting warmer! Warmer, warmer! Holy fuck you're blazing hot!" I yelled. I briefly wondered what he would find over in the corner, and then decided that I didn't care. After a minute of searching, toady stood up with a rusty wrench-looking thing in his hand.

"Well damn. You find out. We're smuggling rusty broken tools. The jig is up guys!" I drawled as I held up my hands. Everyone busted out laughing at how stupid this is. Toady looked at the broken tool and angrily tossed it aside and stormed out of the cargo-hold, with his laughing guards behind him.

"So, did he want to actually catch us smuggling like a good worker, or was he looking for something to blackmail us?" I asked.

Vega shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he is honest." Vega frowned. "Either way, he's a gank" Everyone laughed and agreed. "Andre and Cat, stay with Nostromo and get her ready for long trips. Jade and I are going to hit the notice boards and find a job or two."

"We had barely enough money to cover the docking fee, how are we going to pay for the parts?" Andre asked.

"Cat'll figure it out." Vega answered airily. "If you say so." Andre replied. "What's that supposed to mean?!" Cat yelled. Vega grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the ship as those two started arguing. After we left the bay, we walked for a bit before I realized that Vega was still holding my hand. I angrily yanked it back and got a weird look from her which I returned with a pointed glare.

"Where are we going?" I asked. "Looking for notice boards." Noticing my confused look, she explained. "They're places where independent workers like ourselves can get contracts for cargo carrying, bounty hunting, etc."

I nodded. Makes sense. "Got it. Let's go."

Vega beamed and lead me further into the sprawling space station. I don't think I ever felt so lost in my entire life. This was just…I watched a giant pink woman twirled on a pole as other large hologram-ad thing lit up the entire area as cars flew in the air. Titan seemed to loom over the station through the window at the top of the station.

"Definitely not in Kansas anymore." I muttered.

"You say something?" Vega asked over her shoulder.

"No. Come on. We got to find a job."

 _There was a colony on the moon, but it was swallowed up by the military and turned into a fort. Now the only people allowed there are either part of the military or work for the military industrial complex._

 _Don't be shy, leave those reviews. They fuel me._

 _-C.H._


	6. Chapter 6

You know, you would think that growing up in a city as crowded as Los Angeles that I would be used to crowds. And you would be totally wrong. I tried to move my way through the crowd, even using manners like my parents taught me. "Excuse me! Sorry didn't meant to step on your toes!" etc. etc. The funniest part of this all was the fact that I had to grab Jade's hand again and pretty much pull her along. She didn't look to happy about it, but after I had lost her and then spent a half an hour trying to find her, I tossed her feelings out the window and held her hand and pulled her through the crowd. I think she figured out why pretty quickly, but she still complained every now and then or made a token effort to yank her hand back. Pretty sure it was all about pride though, not being lead around or something dumb like that.

At last we came to the notice board and Jade and I had run out of patience and pretty much just forced our way to the front. Maybe the wasn't the politest thing to do, but after fighting the crowds in this squalid, nasty place with rude people, my patience was pretty much done. I almost got pushed away from the board, but Jade came forward and stomped on the rude gank's toes. I bit my lip to not laugh out loud as I swiped through the potential jobs. I found a good and easy one in a about a minute. I downloaded it onto my data pad and then pulled Jade out of the crowd.

"Got a run! We're going to Hong Kong."

"Earth or somewhere else?" Jade asked.

"Earth. Don't worry, that ganky jackhole won't find us."

Jade shrugged and again yanked her hand out of mine. What is with this girl? At least this time she's sticking close to me. Her head and eyes darted around, trying to take in everything. It was kind of cute, like a little kid at an amusement park. Though I'm not going to tell her that because she'll probably cut my hair off in my sleep or something. "We can take a moment and look around." I said after she nearly walked into a pole while staring at something else.

She shrugged and said "Sure whatever. You're the captain."

If I hadn't seen her spinning her head around like it was on a swivel, I would have thought she was as apathetic to my suggestion as she sounded. We looked through the stores and the holovids and I wondered what she was making of it all. Five hundred years is a long time. We've all heard stories about going to the future, or the past. But to actually live that? How do you process that? How do you accept that happened to you? Everything that she knew is gone and never coming back. I felt nothing but pity for her, though I didn't let her see any of it on my face. Don't think she would react to well to being pitied. Trina is the exact same way, always have to be tough in front of everyone ese.

Jade was staring at some hair decorations, nanites that change either your entire hair style or just give you highlights. "You want that?" I asked. "Ye..No. We can't afford that. I was just thinking. That's it."

I rolled my eyes and stepped past her. "How much?" I asked, pointing at highlights. "Three crowns." The seller said, who by the way was wearing some kind of sleeveless multi-colored shirt that was bright enough to make my eyes hurt. I raised an eyebrow. "You gone nane? A crown at the most."

Rainbow seller laughed. "These top of the line color-changers. Near perm too. Comes with mood options as a bonus. Three crowns."

I laughed too, though I wasn't finding it really funny. "Two crowns and five crescents." Seller opened his mouth and then closed it, thinking. "Two-eight." He said. "Two-six and not one crescent higher." I fired back. Seller grumped and then nodded. I passed him the money and he gave me the highlights. Jade and I walked off from the bazaar and slowly made our way back to our ship. "Here you go. You'll have to ask Cat how to apply them, she's the one with the changing hair."

Jade blinked. "Um thanks. What was that?"

"Haggling. Didn't they do that in the twenty-first century?" Yo. The glare she shot me should have killed me on the spot. If she ever figured out how to weaponize that look she would be the richest person in the entire Alliance. "I meant the money." She growled at me. Oh. Right we never did get around to tell her, did we? I fished through the coin purse and held up each coin. The first one up was a light gold circle with Earth imprinted on one side, and the three-headed eagle of the Alliance on the other. "This is a sovereign, also known as a crown. It's worth the most." Next up came a silver crescent. "This is a crescent, right in the middle. You'll probably use these the most. I held up a small rectangle last. "And last and the very least, the platinum credit chit, aka platinum, credit or just plain chit. No one really likes them. It's a hundred credit chits to a crescent, and ten crescents to a crown/sovereign."

"Easy to remember." Jade murmured. "Yup! You'll see prices like, two-seven-thirty-five. That means two sovereigns, seven crescents and thirty-five platinum." Jade nodded and then looked away, finding the admittedly squalid space station to be way more interesting then a discussion about money, and I couldn't really blame her.

"What's the job?" She asked suddenly.

"Just taking some cargo to some building in Hong Kong. Easy money."

Jade groaned. "We're gonna have to deal with toad-face again, aren't we?" I blinked at the nickname but shook my head. "We shouldn't have to, his job should just be dealing with arrivals, not departures. What's a toad?"

Jade nearly tripped over her feet at my question. "What? What the hell do mean what's a toad?"

I frowned. "Exactly what I asked. What's a toad? They some kind of animal?"

"Oh my god the future is just depressing." Jade answered while rolling her eyes. I gaped at her. "We're on a space station orbiting a moon, light-years from Earth! Couldn't do that in your time!" I snapped.

"At least we had toads!" Jade snapped back.

"Okay seriously what are toads?!"

Jade and I argued the whole way back. I had some great one liners that totally wrecked her self-esteem.

Okay. Okay. Maybe not. I swear she practices her insults in the mirror because everything I said was either tossed right back in my face and or one upped by something else. We argued all the way to the Nostromo were Cat nearly piledrove the both us into the ground.

"Great you're here! So, lets go do something! Something that isn't here! Becausewereallyshouldbeleavinglikenow." I blinked and looked at Jade for a translation, but she looked just as lost as I was.

"In english please." I said. "And slowly." I added the moment Cat opened her mouth. "We should leave and go do something. Something that isn't here. Like visit my brother. I think he's out of the asylum."

"I'm going to regret this, but why is your brother back in the nane-house?" I asked as we walked up the ramp to the ship.

"He tried to impersonate the First Prime-Minister of New Zealand and then tried to stab a maid with a spork."

Andre had shown up just in time to hear the last part of the sentence and we all stared at her. "The cargo arrived a little bit ago and we're clear to take off whenever." Andre said, breaking the silence.

"Right. Start up the engines and let's go. To your places people!" I said. Andre and Cat took off to the bridge and engine room while Jade just stood there. "So, what do I do?" she asked, a little nonplussed.

"Make sure everything is strapped down and then come up to the bridge." I called over my shoulder as I hurried up to the bridge. Nostromo started to hum as the engines came to life and I slid into the pilot's seat. Andre had just gotten cleared to launch and I started to guide Nostromo out of the hanger when Jade's voice came over the intercom.

"Is it normal for a crowd of people to follow a ship taking off? And start throwing things at it?"

Andre and I looked at each other. "What the hell?" He asked. "Um. No that isn't norma-CAT!" I yelled.

"What?" She whined.

"What. Did. You. Do?"

She was silent as Jade's rather concerned voice said, "I think they're shooting at us!", I growled into the intercom and she said "Okay look, if those parts were really all that important to them they shouldn't have left them out in the open! I mean if something is important to you, you should really keep it close to you, otherwise it really isn't all that important to you, you know?"

Oh. My. God.

"And because it isn't important to them then it's really important to us and we deserve to have it because it's important to us. Understand?"

"I understand that you're on dish duty for the next month!" I snapped.

Cat immediately started whining but I tuned it out. "Soooo" Andre said.

"Please don't start." I grumped.

"Okay okay." Andre started plugging away at the navigation, getting us ready to jump to Earth, all the while humming some kind of song that had lines that sounded suspiciously like "I told you so"

I groaned. What a great start to this job.

 _Yes I am still alive. Apologies for the lack of updates. Hope you all enjoyed._

 _-C.H._


	7. Chapter 7

One jump later and we were only a few hours away from the moon. Vega said that we couldn't jump directly over Earth because that would be how you got yourself and whoever you ran into killed. I sat on a couch in the observation deck and watched the Moon as we flew by it. Only a few hours from Earth at this speed and it is amazing. Back in the 21st century, I never thought much about space. I mean outside of movies, I never had a reason to care about it. Thought about making a movie about a serial killer in space, but beyond that did anyone actually care?

God…Even experiencing so much after being awake for only a few days, I would give it all up to have Dad and Beck back. We were just starting to talk! It wasn't fair! I sniffled as I felt my eyes water and a couple tears slowly dropped down my cheek. A small cough came from behind me and I hurriedly wiped by eyes and face. Andre came around gave a small wave.

"Do you uh, want me to leave?" He asked softly.

"I don't care."

He took that as an okay to sit down next to me. We sat in slightly awkward silence for a minute as he tried to decide on what to say. I wasn't going to help him.

He started and stopped a few times before I snapped at him to spit out whatever was bothering him.

"I'm trying to say something that'll cheer ya up but can't think of anything. I mean you're five hundred years old, on a space ship and everything else."

I rolled my eyes and didn't say anything. "And since I can't say anything to help you find that golden happy line, I think I'll just play some music. Music helps everyone right?"

Before I could say anything, he reached behind the couch that we were sitting on and pulled out a beautiful acoustic guitar and I was impressed. "Is that real?" I asked. Andre gave this big smile and nodded. "Yup. Don't know how my Grandma got it, but she gave it to for Christmas years ago. I'm better with the piano, but we only have a digital one and I am waiting for Cat to get around to fix that."

Andre began to play and whatever you can say about the guy, he knows how to make the guitar sing. I actually want to hear him play the piano because if he's better on that, just…wow. Slow, soothing notes filled the observation deck. I couldn't believe that it was actually making me feel better. I listened and watched as we slowly flew towards the moon. After some time, Andre stopped playing.

"How was that?" He asked, a big grin on his face.

"It wasn't terrible." I answered. Andre laughed loudly. "I'll take it!"

We talked music and started to compose a couple songs and before I knew it, I had completely forgotten about being sad. I wasn't going to admit it, but I was really glad that Andre came up here to cheer me up. The fact that he did it without pissing me off is an awesome bonus. We sat together as we flew past the Moon. I looked through the windows and I could swear that I saw ships moving in all directions. Some time passed as we sat and stared out the window as Andre occasionally plucked at the guitar. "Coming up on Earth, everyone to their positions!" Andre took off to the bridge and I went to check on the cargo and then ran to the bridge and strapped myself into one of the chairs. I spun myself forward and watched as we entered the atmosphere. Flames flowed over the nose of the ship as we started to shake.

"Cat?" Vega called out.

"Golden Squares!" Cat answered

"That means we're good" Vega said, glancing back at me. The ship rattled, and I looked at her. This is good? What does bad mean, we explode and all die?

Fuck. Why did I think that?

Eventually the shaking stopped, and we broke through the clouds and _oh my god._ Hong Kong was a massive city, and right on top of it was another city! Even taller sky scrapers and the platform it was on stretched out to almost completely cover the city underneath it.

Andre whistled. "Hong Kong. One of the biggest dual-cities."

"Dual-Cities?" I asked.

"A lot of cities in the twenty-second century became so crowded that they tried to expand, but they didn't have any where to go so they just built cities on top of the ones already there." Andre explained. How many people were on this planet that building a city on top of another one was needed? Vega banked the ship as we flew towards the city and fell in line with other ships as we entered the lower city. I stared up as the upper city came closer and closer and then completely blocked the sun. We moved from one flying lane into another before rising and moving towards a building with a giant holographic red star on the front of it.

"Our drop off point. The Tonkin-Hainan Industries." Vega said as she flew us onto the landing pad near the middle of the tower. I didn't bother to watch the landing, getting up and going to the cargo bay. Once there I checked it over and made sure that nothing broke during reentry. So far everything was fine. Reminded me of that one show that my dad loved. Something about smugglers and one guy complaining about how things never go smooth. Really hoping that we have better luck than those guys. The gentle hum of the engines died down as the ship settle onto the landing pad.

Smooth. Things will go smoothly.

I gave a small exhale and waited as the ramp was lowered. A man in a company uniform and a blue light on the back of his right walked up the ramp to me. He handed me a data pad thing and I signed it. Guess even in the future people still need shit signed and what not. After I handed the pad back to the guy, some others walked up the ramp and began picking up the crates. Guess they make them strong in the future?

I walked over to the intercom and spoke into it "Signed the thing. Blue-light hands are unloading the cargo."

"Blue-light han-oh you mean the andriods!" Vega said. "Great. Keep an eye on them and make sure that they don't break anything."

Right. Make sure the guys lifting the heavy boxes like they're styrofoam don't break anything. Maybe I could hurt their feelings. Except they're andriods, so who knows if they have any feelings that I can hurt? Or since people are shitholes to begin with, nothing they haven't heard already. I stood off in the corner, watching them. Maybe it's because they're machines but they were freakishly efficient. It took about twenty minutes, but the entire bay was emptied. By then Vega had appeared and chatted with one of the andriods. The android handed Vega a small bag of money and walked off. Vega practically skipped over to me.

"We have money!" She sang.

"For the next five minutes." I sang back.

Vega frowned and stuck her tongue out at me. "Great comeback" I said.

"Oh, shut up you grouchy pants person!" I laughed at her and for a fleeting second thought that her pouting face was cute. _Where the hell did that thought come from?_

I shook my head and focused on Vega's babbling. We went to the galley and there Vega started dividing up the money. "Tell Andre to move Nostromo to a port. We won't be leaving Hong Kong for a few days." When I didn't move fast enough, Vega shot me a look and I got up and hit the intercom to tell Andre what Vega wanted him to do. Before I could sit back down, Vega told me to go to the bridge and start getting some flying lessons. I huffed at being ordered around but I did as I was told.

I got up to the bridge just as Andre had started warming up the engines. I sat down and Andre told me what was what. It was interesting. I wouldn't say that it was incredibly complicated, but it was definitely something that you don't sit down and just do. Anteiku class ships were famous for being really simple if boring ships. The controls and were easy, but Andre rightfully didn't let me try and fly in the middle of a city. He promised that I would get some practice once we were in deep space and there for unlikely to hit someone.

"You know, back in the twenty-first century, a lot of shows about the future had the cities loaded with massive adds and things like that. I thought it was dumb." I said as we flew by a giant hologram of a half-naked Asian woman.

Andre laughed. "And now?" he asked.

"Now I think they might have been on to something."

Andre laughed again and then directed me to get a landing zone for us. We landed and had just shut off the engines when Vega's voice came through the intercom.

"Andre, take Jade and find us a new job. Riley said Tonkin-Hainan Industries might have more local jobs, so we won't have to go far. Cat, with me. I want every part that we need to fix Nostromo for deep-space runs."

"You heard the boss-lady. Let's go!" We grabbed a couple jackets along with a pair masks that covered our mouths. "That bad here? Thought LA would be worse and I didn't use one then." I said as I fitted it around my neck and let it hang.

"That was dumb and there hasn't been a pollution cloud in a long time, but I guess I'm just paranoid." Andre said cheerfully as he grabbed a pistol and holstered it inside of his jacket. He buttoned up and led the way to the airlock. We walked down a smaller ramp and I followed Andre as he made a beeline for the jobs board thing and started looking at it.

"Vega normally that bossy?" I asked while looking at the board.

Andre shook his head. "Normally we're all chilled as Pluto. But sometimes she'll put her foot down and tell us what to do. Don't need to worry about her being a tyrant or anything."

"Sounds good to me. See anything good?"

Andre hummed a song as his eyes danced over the board. I looked at one and then pointed at one. "From the same company. Looks like they want to drop off stuff in Miami. Paying at thirty-five crowns. Is that a lot?"

Andre blanched. "Yea that's a lot of money. Especially for a job that stays on this planet." He paused. "Miami's on this planet, right?"

I looked at him. "Yea. It's in America. On the east coast at the tip of Florida. How do you now know that?" I asked, my normal flaying wit failing me for once.

Andre shrugged. "Probably because a good chunk of the east coast is under water. Why would we learn about a city that's gone?" I had to admit that he had a point. "Think it's dangerous?"

Andre sighed. "Most likely. City ruins probably have a bunch of scavengers living in them. Attacking anyone that comes in."

"It's the best paying job on the board." I pointed out.

Andre grinned, and it was infectious enough that I couldn't help grinning back. "Here for the fun time not a long time, right?"

I laughed. We took the job.

 _Hope you all enjoyed. Hoping to get more writings out for other stories, especially the Alphas one. That has been on hiatus long enough. Unfortunately, I have a two-week work week coming right up with no access to my laptop and or internet. I'll have it all out before the year is out, this I promise._

 _-C.H._


End file.
